The Cockfield man who made his mark on America, Teesdale Mercury

The Cockfield man who made his mark on America

Mar 25, 2008

LYNNE HALL looks at the extraordinary achievements of Jeremiah Dixon, who helped shape the USA 

JEREMIAH Dixon of Cockfield was a man who made his mark in America in more ways than most. In fact, Jeremiah left over 300 markers in what we now know as the United States of America.

But in Jeremiah's day it was far from united and was still a British colony.

Jeremiah Dixon, together with Charles Mason, gave their names to the Mason-Dixon Line, one of the most famous boundaries in the Northern Hemisphere. 

The line separates the states of Pennsylvania and Maryland and, in some places, Delaware.

Plotting the boundary has been hailed as one of the "greatest scientific achievements of all time."

And the line itself, has been described as being: "next to the Equator the most widely known line in the world".

The Mason-Dixon Line is often linked with slavery and thought by some, to divide the free north from the slave-owning south before, and during the Civil War. The history of the line is, however, more to do with money than principles of freedom.

The need to mark this boundary arose because of land disputes which began in 1632, in the reign of Charles I. Two land-owners, William Penn, of Pennsylvania, and George Calvert, who owned the colony of Maryland, were granted their land rights by different English monarchs. This caused confusion over the boundaries, until an English High Court ruling decided that the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland should lie 15 miles south of Philadelphia. 

So how did Jeremiah Dixon, a man from Cockfield, come to play such an important part in marking out boundaries in North America?

A map showing a degree of latitude measured by Mason and Dixon

Jeremiah was born in Cockfield in 1733. His father, Ralph Dixon, was a colliery owner who lived at  Henknowle near Cockfield, and was a wealthy man. 

Jeremiah and his elder brother, George, were educated at Mr John Kipling's school in Barnard Castle. Jeremiah was interested in mathematics and astronomy and had close friendships with William Emerson, the mathematician of Hurworth, and John Bird, the instrument maker, of Bishop Auckland.

It was because of his connections with Emerson and Bird that Jeremiah was employed by the Royal Woolwich Academy in 1761, to work with Nevil Maskelyne, the future Astronomer Royal. 

At his interview at the Royal Woolwich Academy, Jeremiah is said to have been asked: "At what public school did you get your rudiments?" "At no public school," he answered. "Then at what particular seat of learning?" "In a pit cabin upon Cockfield Fell."

Jeremiah joined up with Charles Mason to travel to the Island of Sumatra to observe the transit of Venus. The mission failed in Sumatra because of fog, but they returned via the Cape of Good Hope where they made very successful observations.

From the Cape, Jeremiah and Charles Mason joined up with Maskelyne, and sailed back home on HMS Mercury. 

In 1763, Jeremiah joined forces with Mason again. They were sent to the American colonies to mark out the boundary which today carries their names.

They landed in Philadelphia in November1763 - they first established the exact position of Philadelphia itself. Using Dixon's surveying skills and Mason's expertise in astronomy, they set out to chart an exact line of latitude at 39 degrees and 43 minutes latitude north. 

This path, through the wilderness of North America, stretched for 306 miles and took Mason and Dixon, 50 months to complete. The survey cost $75,000 and was paid by William Penn and Lord Baltimore.  

The task was enormous. Not only did they have to battle through an unforgiving landscape, they also had to contend with temperatures of well below zero. Although they had Indian guides with them, there was a constant danger of confrontations with more hostile Indians as they travelled further west.

To mark the line, they used limestone mile markers imported from England. Every fifth marker was known as a crownstone which carried the coats of arms of the Penns, on one side, and the Calverts on the other, showing who's side of the land it was.

But Jeremiah never got to the end of the boundary line.

From their starting point on the shores of the Delaware River, Jeremiah Dixon and Charles Mason had travelled 233 miles west, across inhospitable and rugged terrain. Unable to carry on any further because of fears of attacks from hostile Indians, they planted their last marker on the top of Brown's Hill, West Virginia.

Between the American War of Independence and the Civil War, the line acquired additional significance. Many people saw the Mason-Dixon line as a symbolic as well as physical border between northern states, which had banned slavery, and Southern slave owning states.

Immediately prior to the Civil War, Southern slaveholding states were called Dixie. Although many reasons have been given for this name, one of the most popular is that it was derived from the word Dixon. The term Mason-Dixon Line has continued in use to the present day, to distinguish between the northern and southern states of the American Union.

In 1990, a group of surveyors based in Maryland and Pennsylvania, being concerned about the physical conditions of the marker stones along the line, formed a group to preserve it. Members of the Mason-Dixon Line Preservation Partnership set out to repair replace and document the existing markers.

The modern surveyors were astonished by the accuracy that Mason and Dixon managed to achieve in plotting the line. For much of the route, Mason and Dixon were within a few feet of the exact line. The stones which remain in place have survived nearly 250 years of revolution, civil war and weather to leave a lasting memorial to Jeremiah Dixon and his colleague.

Jeremiah Dixon continued as a surveyor when he returned to England, charting among other things, Auckland Castle grounds and Lanchester Moor.

He never married, but in his will, reprinted in The Langstaffs of Teesdale and Weardale, he left property and income to a lady by the name of Mary Bland and her two daughters Mary and Elizabeth.

Jeremiah died on January 22, 1779 and was buried in the Society of Friends burial ground in Staindrop in an unmarked grave, as was the Quaker custom at the time. The ground is now a private house and the graveyard a garden.

Todd Babcock, surveyor and president of the Mason-Dixon Line Preservation Partnership (MDLPP), said: "I find that Jeremiah Dixon and Charles Mason, are under appreciated for their accomplishments and contributions to surveying, astronomy and our understanding of the shape of the earth."

He added wistfully: "It's ironic that both men have unmarked graves. It's such a pity that their final resting places say nothing about the men."

First published in the Mercury, March 19, 2008 

• With thanks to Pete Zapadka/exploretheline.com and the Mason-Dixon Line Preservation Partnership